Women in leadership: we're winning the war but the battles rage on.

Madam Chair Bev Manton

NSWALC International Women's Day Luncheon, Parramatta

Thursday 24 March 2011 

First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians whose land I'm speaking on today, and pay my respects to our elders past and present.

I am a proud Worimi woman from the mid-north coast of New South Wales, and the chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council.

I want to thank you for coming to this special lunch today to honour the contribution of women to our society, and for allowing me this opportunity to speak.

As anyone who knows me can tell you, it's definitely an issue that is very close to my heart.

I'm a believer in the power of women. I believe in our rights. I believe in our equality.

I honour the fighters of the past.

It is their advocacy that has led to the unprecedented level of female leadership today.

Over the past few years, there have been several victories splashed across the front page of our newspapers.

We live in a part of Australia where we have a female Prime Minister, a female Governor General, and a female premier.

If you live in NSW, then every one of your elected leaders is a woman.

More broadly, our nation has another female Premier in Queensland, plus 68 female federal Parliamentarians and many more times that number in state and territory parliaments.

The advocacy of the past has led to the ability for women to make their own choices, to determine their own career, and their own pathway.

And I honour the fighters of today. I am, and I suspect you all are, still fighters.

Because, although I believe we have had great victories, we are still hindered by great shortfalls.

The fight for leadership was first forged in the public sector.

When South Australian women were first granted the right to vote in 1894, it was a turning point.

Western Australia followed soon after in 1899, NSW in 1902 and Victoria in 1908.

The Commonwealth granted the right to vote in 1901, so by the dawn of federation, white women were granted the right that their male counterparts enjoyed.

It was the outcome of relentless campaigning by suffrage campaigns and was the first building block towards female political representation in Parliament.

But it was not until 1921 that the first woman was elected - Edith Cowan, a proud campaigner for woman's rights, in West Australia's lower house. It would take a further 22 years until another would be elected.

Since then, we've had several firsts, and women in leadership roles has spilled over, however slowly and thinly, into the private sector.

But it is important to note that these campaigns often did not include us - the First Nations women of this land.

In the right to vote protests, the focus was not on Aboriginal women.

Although they technically got the vote in South Australia, it wasn't communicated to them and both Aboriginal men and women didn't know they had this right.

It was 1962 that Aboriginal men and women were finally granted the vote by the Commonwealth.

That was 6 decades after the initial women's right victory. 

The white feminist movements of yesteryear largely excluded Aboriginal women - it wasn't just white men who marginalised black women.

Queensland Aboriginal academic Jackie Huggins has published widely on this, stating that Aboriginal women were still viewed as the "other".

We were excluded from the woman's rights fights of the past, which suppressed our own rights fight.

Ironically, the rights that non-Indigenous women were fighting for were already rights enjoyed by Aboriginal women before colonization.

Aboriginal society, by and large, treated women equally and they were given important roles. They were involved in their own ceremonies and had their own sacred knowledge.

We were already leaders.

Nowadays, a common media viewpoint of Aboriginal women is of a battered, vulnerable people cowering in communities.

The opposite couldn't be more true. That's not to suggest some women aren't mistreated. Of course, some are. But that happens in all segments of Australian society, and it will for a long time to come.

But this depiction of my sisters as helpless and hopeless does a real disservice to not only the armies of strong Aboriginal women in this country, but also the strong men who respect and honour our place in leadership positions.

Today, we are leaders in own communities, leaders in government, and leaders in the private sector. 

Because, like non-Aboriginal Australia, we have had our own series of firsts, where our women have stood up and taken charge.

And they've done it against the odds of both misogyny and racism.

Kimberley MP Carol Martin became the first Aboriginal politician to be elected to any Parliament in the country, and has retained her western Australian seat since 2001.

Aboriginal MLA Marion Scrymgour became the first Aboriginal minister in the country and in 2007 became the highest ranked Aboriginal member of Parliament in history, when she was appointed the Northern Territory's Deputy Chief Minister.

Her colleague, Alison Anderson, nearly brought down the Henderson government when she walked out on Labor in protest at a bungled Indigenous housing scheme - demonstrating the power Aboriginal women can wield.

Down in my home state, Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal member of the NSW Parliament, and the first Aboriginal minister in NSW. She also served as the ALP's National President. I want to welcome Ms Burney here today and congratulate you on breaking down barriers.

But we cannot forget the strong women in communities around the state, who show leadership on local, state, and national levels.

People like Barbara Shaw, in the Northern Territory, who has been the most outspoken opponent to an intervention light on evidence, but big on government support.

People like our elders, some of you are here today.

My mother, for example, was a strong Worimi woman. She encouraged me to knuckle down and learn through reading and education.

I have gained a lot of my strength from my mother who is no longer with us, and she still remains a very strong influence in my life.

I'm sure you all have your own examples, of the strong women who influence you.

But while today is a day for recognising achievements, it is also a day for identifying the hurdles that are still in the way.

I myself hold a leadership position on a board of 8 Aboriginal men.

I am chair of the largest Aboriginal member-based organization in the country, and the only democratically elected Aboriginal organisation with United Nations speaking rights.

As an Aboriginal woman who has worked in public policy for many years - I can honestly say at times, my limits have been pushed.

As the only Aboriginal women on the NSWALC Board there are times it has been a hurdle for me to simply get my message across and convey the messages of my constituents.

It's a challenge that I endure, for the good of my people and the communities I represent.

Crucial to my ability to endure is my culture.

It sustains my spirit when I am away from my family and community and it renews me when I return.

As a mother of four - and a Grandmother of nine - I am first and foremost a community person.

Family to me is very important and ensuring women and children are represented at all levels in the community is something that I feel very strongly about.

This, as you all would appreciate, has not been an easy task.

Being an Aboriginal person placed in a middle position between our mob and main stream Australia has at times been very difficult.

As an Aboriginal woman, I have carried many burdens, as a wife, friend, mother, daughter, sister.

I've carried them, as I am sure most of you had, since I was a child.

My family lived in tents in the back yard on Karuah mish because as an Aboriginal it was impossible to rent a house.

On the mish, we lived in humpies and broken down shelters except for the non-Aboriginal residents - whose area in the community we were forbidden to enter, unless undertaking domestic chores.

Breaches of such rules were punished.

You couldn't go to the swimming pool like everyone else.

There was a section of the picture theatre where we had to sit.

These are all simple things - basic human rights and freedoms that the rest of the population took for granted.

We couldn't afford to pay for my education and living away from home expenses.

That too was hard to deal with.

But I did. 

I did it for myself.  

I did it for my family. 

I did it for Aboriginal people.  

I did it to show we could do it, that we are capable like anyone else of completing tertiary education if just given the chance.

And I did get serious about education. 

I gained tertiary qualifications but the cost was considerable. 

It meant I had to leave home to stay in Sydney to complete the courses I had enrolled in.

To be away from my kids was difficult to deal with.

So was the cost of gaining that education. 

It had considerable consequences. 

These are some of the barriers Aboriginal women have to face, day to day.

My real drive and determination to enter politics came from growing up in a community where you had to fight for everything, including your survival.

I made my entry into public and political life in the 70's by becoming the Aboriginal Education Assistant at Karuah Public School.

I have managed my career while bringing up a family but I have always had the support of my husband, Kevin, who remains one of my strongest allies.

Kevin inspired me to enter politics as a way of fighting to improve the living conditions of our people.

He has been my rock. Without him, I would not have been so lucky.

As an Aboriginal woman in public life, I have often had to push the limits to find solutions to the many social, economic and political problems in my area.

Even to this day, many of our elderly people are still living in deplorable conditions - that's why I became an advocate for my people.

But they are strong.

I am strong.  

And I know you are strong as well.  

Throughout the New South Wales land rights network, we are walking the talk.

Aboriginal women have been and still are the backbone of the Land Rights movement in New South Wales.

More women than men vote in NSWALC elections - yet it is predominantly men that are being voted into the leadership positions.

However, despite this, women still make up approximately 65 percent of all local Aboriginal land council boards in the state.

That's a figure worth acknowledging, and worth celebrating.

The fact we overpower men in numbers says a lot about how far we have come, and it says a lot about the value of having women in leadership positions.

We have tilted the scales, and we couldn't have done that without the groundbreakers that have become before us.

I would love to see this replicated in mainstream Australia.

Imagine if we had 65 percent of women in Parliament?

Imagine if we had 65 percent of women in the boards of major corporations?

Imagine how this would change the country?

I think the change would be phenomenal. We can't just judge our success on the basis of 1 female Prime Minister, who followed in a line of 26 male leaders.

It is the leaders within our own communities, on the grassroots level, that is perhaps the best basis on which we judge our victories.

I believe that it is imperative that we start to develop the self-confidence of Aboriginal women to operate at the state and national level by bringing about positive change in the daily lives of women and children.

I hope to lead by example and to show that Aboriginal women can play an important role in policy formulation at every level from community through to national.

I want to see the day when more Aboriginal women are elected to office. 

And remember we are elected to office. 

We are not appointed. 

Our community has to think enough of us to want to vote for us.

As Aboriginal women, we know that the challenges facing women are compounded further by issues of racism and by being amongst the most underprivileged and dispossessed people on earth.

As the current Chair of NSWALC, my role is to ensure the interests of Aboriginal women and men across New South Wales.

I know the negative issues that effect Aboriginal people, and I mean everything; because I have also been affected by these things.

Despite all these obstacles; what keeps me going is the desperate need to stand up and be counted so that Aboriginal people can close the gap and be truly equal members of are great Australian nation.

I am passionate about this.

Our people, our community and our representatives are always tested by many hidden agendas such as those who still want to rip us off when we talk about joining in business partnerships with them.

But this is a common fight.

We must stand united, the Aboriginal people of Australia and the many good spirited caring non-Aboriginal peoples who believe in our struggle.

We can create a great change for our people, to claim, own, respect and empower Aboriginal people, for the greater betterment of our nation.

I have had to deal with constant discrimination and racist attitudes.

I had to push past the barriers of intolerance and indifference in order to make a difference.

But all women to some degree have to deal with discrimination and inequality, whether it's subtle or direct, and have to work that bit harder to prove themselves.

It's important to acknowledge that while we have had different struggles, Australia wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for the wider feminist fight.

Although Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women are waging different wars, we still fight the same battles.

We have a long way to go to eliminate the threat of misogyny, which is everpresent. Some men still want to oppress us.

Women - both black and white - in leadership roles are still subjected to criticisms that would never be directed at their male counterparts.

If you took some of the criticisms as truth, you'd think wearing an unfashionable jacket inhibits a woman's ability to govern, or that the colour of her hair reflects her talents.

You would think that her choices in her personal life had telling on her professional life - that her right to not have a baby, for example, shows some sort of insight into her morals.

You would think that her status as a woman stereotypes her, that her femininity becomes a liability.

We are also still yet to achieve full equality in the workforce.

Despite becoming increasingly better educated than men, there remains not one career in Australia where women are higher paid.

There are still pay gaps in many fields. 

This, I imagine, can discourage women to aspire to leadership.

We must look at the barriers that inhibit these aspirations. We must consider dispelling the traditional viewpoints - that women must be mothers, and should not place their careers over motherhood.

The greatest job you can do, after all, is to raise kids and prepare them for the world.

It's the most important job on earth, in fact.

More broadly, we must look at the wider fight for women's rights, because gender discrimination can severely impact on leadership aspirations. 

We must ensure we fight against this discrimination. Against harassment. And against violence.

I believe we must stand united, and continue to fight against gender inequality.

We are different. We have different histories, we have different opinions on our futures.

But strong women in strong leadership positions is a common goal.

We must work towards an Australia that does not react to a female Prime Minister on the basis of her haircut.

We must work towards an Australia where the Prime Minister's.

And we must work towards an Australia where the sex of our Prime Minister isn't newsworthy.

When we reach that day, then maybe then we can be reassured the fight is well and truly won.